Rodney

The only things that are really yours in life are memories, the stories you can tell. So you want to get someplace where _many memories are made, daily. That usually means something real. or at least intense. Along these lines:

* Volunteer for the local suicide prevention hotline. You'll never be bored, you'll learn a lot.

* Go work in a soup kitchen. I did this; ended up running it, some nights. The people that walked in the door.... We had nicknames for the regulars: Hairy Prophet, Doorway Dancer, more. And some of our "customers" I still know and say hi to.

*Local theater productions. This _isn't_ real, but the egos are. You may not get on stage, but there are plenty of geek jobs around that'll still make you "with the show:" props, lighting, whatever. Public access TV is good, too, if they have that up in Canadia. Usually they train you for free or little money, and then people are after you to work on their shows. And after a while, enough of them owe you that you can get them to work on a show _you_ put together. On punk music, maybe.

*Choirs. Join a community choir, one that performs. Singing's fun, and the social dynamics inside a choir are even more intense than in the theater. In a large, ongoing choir, there's usually a marriage every year or two.

What all these activities have in common is that they are all little worlds -- activities that a lot of people work together on and grow very tight while doing. They all become communities and can also lead to outside social scenes that are tied into them. Find something like that and you'll get to know a lot of new people really well and, with luck, never be bored.